How can you persuade hesitant stakeholders to embrace modern marketing, such as TikTok or influencer marketing? Well, as a marketer, you know how to research an audience and understand how to speak their language. That’s the same approach you need to take here. Every situation is unique, but here are some principles to help:
- Observe, ask Qs, and listen. The credibility of your advice suffers in the absence of empathetic listening. Get to the bottom of the objectives already at play, and the perceived risks of new methods.
- Help them understand media consumption. Someone with an old-fashioned approach to marketing often has an old-fashioned approach to media consumption. Since many wrongly assume that everyone consumes media the way that they do, you have to demonstrate different consumer behaviors.
- Reason by analogy. Analogies are the bridge between what a person already knows and what they need to know. To give you a shared point of reference to start from, educate yourself about their current methods and marketing vocabulary.
- Be prepared to provide proof. What’s new seems risky until proven otherwise. Gather hard data regarding the media consumption of their target audience, surveys from their own audience, visuals like slide decks, or anecdotal customer success stories.
- Build confidence in the team and process. Effective leaders know they don’t need to understand every nuance of a new platform if they know a team implementing it can get results. Build trust by demonstrating expertise from team members.
- Help them learn from past success. Help stakeholders connect the dots from the success that came from adapting in the past to the success that can result from adapting in the present. The pandemic especially has been a lesson in the need to adapt.
- Connect them with helpful resources. The internet is an endless resource of video, audio, and written content. Point them in the direction of accurate information that will demystify modern marketing methods.
Check out the full post from Carney’s blog to equip yourself with all of the right questions and approaches. Need help to back up your efforts? Hit up the Carney team to discuss your upcoming projects and goals.
